[Buddha-l] Jhanas in Mahayana & Tibetan

[JKirkpatrick]

Op 29-09-10 20:17, Jackhat1 at aol.com schreef:
>
> I am asking not how each religion changes over time but how
and  why, 
> in general, all religions change from how it was originally
taught  
> toward a common practice. For instance, Buddhism has added
among many  
> people devotional practices and praying to Buddha as God to
bestow 
> some  gift. In Thailand, for example, people pay money to
priests to bless their  lottery numbers.
>
> jack
>
>    
What makes you think there is a universal pattern, free from the
ever changing haphazard turnings of history?
Anyway if you think so, you might want to consult guys like Hegel
and Elias.

erik
_______________________________________________

Jack,
You might also want to consult Max Weber. As religious movements,
if socially successful, end up forming organisations, they
develop practices -- consciously or or by the by (the conscious
bit is my idea not Weber's)-- that operate to keep
communicants/devotees centered on the organisation. This process
would be part of what Weber called the "routinisation of
charisma". His view of the religious organisation process IMHO is
still valid today, about both religious and non-religious (e.g.
political) organisations that began with charismatic leaders.
(However, the power of today's commercial broadcast media might
effect dilutions of this process today.)
Joanna